About

The Political Economy Tokyo Seminar (PoETS) is a monthly English-language research seminar hosted at the University of Tokyo. The seminar brings together historians from Japan and around the world to understand the economy in its relationships with broader social environments such as politics, businesses, science, media, gender, and everyday life. The seminar convenes online regularly on the first or second Tuesday of the month at 5 pm (Japan Standard Time).

Contact Details

Please send your correspondence to Shaun Yajima and Ryosuke Yokoe at PoetsUTokyo@gmail.com

8 December 2021 Shinsaku Onishi (online via Zoom)

We are pleased to announce the third of our online PoETS seminar!

8 December 2021 (Wednesday)
6:00-7:30 pm (Japanese Standard Time)

Shinsaku Onishi
“British Trade Unions and Collective Bargaining 1870-1880 : Was co-operation between capital and labour a symbol of liberal conscience or a detriment to the public good?”

参加登録は下記からお願いします。https://u-tokyo-ac-jp.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEqd-muqDgiG9QiN5Us0bAb0A17Hj0RQV2g

Abstract:
The legal recognition of British trade unions under the Trade Union Act of 1871 symbolised consummation of the co-operative relationship between capital and labour. It granted the latter freedom of contract, by which trade unions could negotiate wages and working conditions with their employers on equal terms. The institutional framework of collective bargaining was a locale of such a procedure to seek mutual consent and deepen their understanding. However, this ‘honeymoon’ period between employers and trade unions did not last long. When conventional practice of trade unions was no longer seen to serve the public interest, liberal’s call for free trade in labour, which persisted in pursuit of the neutral state in the late 1860s, ended up in conceding its ideological ascendancy to the capital-centred discourse of free trade. Inside and outside trade unions, there were increasing demands for meeting exigencies of market economy by adopting the more growth-oriented and competitive framework of co-operation. Taking into consideration what liberals signified by making appeals to the voluntary scheme of collective bargaining in the legislation of the Trade Union Act of 1871, historical examination of the discourse of political economy suggests the irrevocable ideological fault-line marked between its ‘moral’ and ‘economic’ law, whose division gave intellectual cause of the impending British Methodenstreit. Juxtaposing arguments and statements of contemporary intellectuals about their growing fear against defunct conditions of collective bargaining with the re-emergent discourse of deductive theories, this attempt to trace history of political economy recasts the relationship between liberalism and the public good transformed in the period of the economic recession from the 1870s. The outcome was liberal’s embrace of ideological dilemma between the conventional practice of free trade in the voluntary market system and ineluctable implementation of free trade under corporate capitalism. 

2 November 2021 Tim Stuart-Buttle (online via Zoom)

We are pleased to announce the second of our online PoETS seminar!

2 November 2021 (Tuesday)
6:00-7:30 pm (Japanese Standard Time)

Tim Steuart-Buttle (University of York)
‘Arguing with Cicero: the cases of Locke and Hume’

Zoom (advance registration required)
https://u-tokyo-ac-jp.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAsceusqTwsHtJIkThlH5k90HaJcTO05p-Z

The seminar will adjourn to an optional online meeting room where you can continue conversation in a more informal setting.

4 October 2021 Ryosuke Yokoe (online via Zoom)

We are very pleased to resume our seminar, albeit online!

4 Oct. 2021 (Mon.), 6:00 pm-7:30pm (Japan Standard Time)
Ryosuke Yokoe (University of Tokyo)
‘Brewers, Booze and Disease: Industrial Funding of Alcoholic Liver Disease Research in 1980s Britain’

Zoom (advance registration required)
https://u-tokyo-ac-jp.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvc-GvqT8sGtFTL2_g4tmeZY6pYdzPLynM

Abstract: This paper examines the factors that compelled the British brewing industry to financially sponsor a set of scientific studies on liver disease during the 1980s, expounding on the nature of private-sector funding in clinical research. Through previously unexplored internal records of the Brewers’ Society (presently known as the British Beer and Pub Association), the paper underscores how drinks companies sought to contribute to wider policy debates on drunkenness and public health by seeking the aid of medical expertise. Partly to minimise its own responsibility for the rise of alcohol-related harm, the industry funded research projects that looked into factors other than alcohol that contributed to the development of liver cirrhosis. The identification of the disease’s inborn determinants relating to heredity and sex strengthened the notion that only a minority of drinkers were at risk of developing alcohol-related illnesses, undermining the call for policies that sought to reduce all forms of alcohol consumption. Although driven by self-interest, the industry nevertheless supported legitimate lines of inquiry that elucidated the complex, multifactorial causation of cirrhosis.

The seminar will adjourn to an optional online meeting room where you can continue conversation in a more informal setting.

EAIHN Online Seminar Series

We are pleased to present the following seminar series.

1st EAIHN Online Seminar
October 28th (Wed.), 2020. 7pm-9pm (JST/KST)
Paul Tonks & Michael Ratnapalan (Yonsei University, Seoul)
Bound ‘together by the golden thread of a common tradition’? Decolonisation and the complex British relationships of South Asian Leaders

Discussants: Nathan Alexander and Hiroki UENO (Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo)
Chair: Doohwan AHN (Seoul National University)

2nd EAIHN Online Seminar
November 25th (Wed.), 2020. 7pm-9pm
Tanvi Solanki (Yonsei University)
Listening to Difference: Race, Culture, and Aesthetics in the German Enlightenment

Discussants: Hiroki UENO (provisional) and Yoko IOKU (Tokyo University of the Arts)
Chair: Doohwan AHN (provisional)

3rd EAIHN Online Seminar
December 16th (Wed.), 2020. 7pm-9pm
Speaker: Joshua Ehrlich (University of Macau)
The East India Company and the Late Enlightenment
Sora SATO (Toyo University, Tokyo), Doohwan AHN (provisional)
Chair: Hiroki UENO (provisional)

* The events are cosponsored by the Japanese Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.* We plan to pre-circulate a paper for each conference in order for participants to be able to read in advance. Presentations would be about 20-25 minutes each, and the speakers would not read a full paper there.
* To join the seminar, please contact us via the following Google Form ideally 24 hours before each seminar. We will inform you of the Zoom links, and send a full paper.
If you could not access the form in time, please contact UENO Hiroki [上野大樹]: h.ueno83[at]gmail.com We will do our best to accommodate you.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfdNCjI_C67cZgQ_rusomcQ8zbHe74_DkABhW44C33tI0F5bQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Supported by the European Studies Programme, Seoul National University

Taming Capitalism before its Triumph: Author meets critics online 11/17 (火), 10pm-12pm

本研究会メンバーの山本浩司さんのモノグラフについて、下記の通りオンライン研究会を開催いたします。事前登録が必要となります。奮ってご参加ください。

Join historians and social scientists to discuss a recent book on the history of capitalism: Yamamoto, Taming Capitalism before its Triumph.

About this Event

The history of capitalism has seen a renaissance over the last decade, but relatively fewer works have focused on its early phases, including the early modern period in which England began evolving into the ‘first industrial nation’.

Koji Yamamoto’s book Taming Capitalism before its Triumph: Distrust, Public Service, and “Projecting” in Early Modern England (Oxford, 2018) offers a fresh reappraisal.

This online symposium brings together renowned scholars from across medieval history, early modern history, historical sociology and political science to discuss the book.

Date and Time
Tue, 17 Nov 2020
22:00-24:00 (Japan Standard Time)

Venue and registration: 
Zoom (online) please register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/taming-capitalism-before-its-triumph-author-meets-critics-online-tickets-126016218903

Provisional Programme

Opening Remarks
Wenkai He | HKUST Hong Kong

Cultural History as the Antidote to Whiggish Histories of Capitalism
Martha Howell | Medieval European history, Columbia University

Projects, Intoxicants, and Early-modern Capitalism
Phil Withington | Social and cultural history, University of Sheffield

Projectors, Petitioners, and One-Dimensional Theories of Power
David Zaret | Early modern British history and historical sociology, Indiana University, Bloomington

“Whiggish History”, Projectors and Corporate Capitalism
Steve Pincus | British history and British empire, University of Chicago

Capitalism: The Means or the End to Common Good
Wenkai He | Comparative history and political science, HKUST Hong Kong

‘Reply by the Author’
Koji Yamamoto | Early modern Britain and business history, University of Tokyo

Open Discussion

CANCELLED: Friday 14 Februry 2020 Dr Tanvi Solanki (Yonsei)

本セミナーは発表者の都合によりキャンセルとなりました。
This seminar has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.

14 February 2020 (Friday), 6:30pm-8:30pm
Seminar Room 3, Floor 2, Kojima Hall, University of Tokyo / 東京大学本郷キャンパス小島ホール２階、第3セミナー室

Tanvi Solanki (Yonsei University)
“Listening to Difference: Race, Culture, and Aesthetics in the German Enlightenment.”
Discussant:         SAITO Sho (University of Tokyo)

道順については下記をご参照ください。/ Access
http://www.cirje.e.u-tokyo.ac.jp/about/access/campusmapj.pdf

会終了後は、会場にてワインとともに歓談をした後、発表者と有志で懇親会を行います。
奮ってご参加ください。 Free refreshments provided afterwards. All are welcome.

 

上記イベントと関連して12日、13日にも以下のシンポジウムが開催されます。東アジアのヨーロッパ啓蒙思想研究者のネットワーク構築と発展を目指した画期的シンポジウムです。昨年の4月にソウルの延世大学にて立ち上げのシンポジウムを行い、今回が第3回目となります。どうぞご参加くださいませ。

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

〈プログラム〉

The 3rd Colloquium of the East Asian Intellectual History Network
“British Cosmopolitanism Reconsidered: Views from Global History”

12-14 February, 2020
Day 1 & 2 at Toyo University, Tokyo (Hakusan Campus)
Room A101, Floor1, Building 10 / 東洋大学白山キャンパス10号館 1階 A101教室
Day 3 at the University of Tokyo (Hongo Campus)
Seminar Room 3, Floor 2, Kojima Hall / 東京大学本郷キャンパス小島ホール2階、第3セミナー室
主催：18世紀啓蒙と歴史叙述研究会（1日目・2日目）／Political Economy Tokyo Seminar（3日目）

Day 1 (12th February) Enlightenment Cosmopolitanism

10:30-11:10        UENO Hiroki (Hitotsubashi University) & SATO Sora (Toyo University)
“The significance of networking Enlightenment historians in East Asia”
(On collaboration plans and possible ideas regarding future publication)

11:20-12:30        Keynote Speech by AHN Doohwan (Seoul National University)
“The Collapse of the Balance of Power and the Growth of Cosmopolitanism”

14:10-15:00        KAMIMURA Yoshi (University of Tokyo)
“Imperial Origins of Judicial Review: The Cases of the East India Company and Quebec”

15:10-16:30        Roundtable Discussion
Discussants: ZHOU Baowei (East China Normal University, Shanghai)
LI Hongtu (Fudan University, Shanghai)
SEKIGUCHI Saki (Waseda University, PhD candidate)

Day 2 (13th February) Plurality of Enlightenments and their National Contexts

10:30-11:20        INAGAKI Kentaro (University of Tokyo, PhD candidate)
“Against ‘via moderna et metaphysica hodierna’: Albert Schultens and the rise of ‘empirical’ biblical philology in eighteenth-century Dutch Republic”

11:20-12:20        CHEN Alvin (Academia Sinica, Taipei)
“Enlightenment Cosmopolitanism and the Question of the Particular: Histories and History in Montesquieu’s Political Thought”

14:00-14:50        KOTANI Hideo (Gunma University)
“Commonsense Philosophy and the ‘Dethroning of Reason’:  A Methodological Argument in German Enlightenment between Popular Philosophers and Kant”

14:50-15:50        CHEN Chien-Kang (National Chengchi University, Taipei)
“What Kind of Cosmopolitanism? Reassessing Bentham’s ‘Place and Time’”

16:00-17:20        Roundtable
Discussants: Tanvi SOLANKI (Yonsei University, Seoul)
AMITANI Sosuke (Dokkyo University)
SADAMORI Ryo (Keio University)

17:20-17:30  Closing Remarks by NOHARA Shinji (University of Tokyo)

Day 3 (14th February) Political Economy Tokyo Seminar (PoETS) at the University of Tokyo

18:30-20:30        Tanvi SOLANKI (Yonsei University, Seoul)
“Listening to Difference: Race, Culture, and Aesthetics in the German Enlightenment”

＊1日目（2月12日）の夜には会場の東洋大学（白山キャンパス）内のレストランで懇親会が予定されております。この懇親会に参加希望の方は2月7日（金）までに以下の佐藤のアドレスにご連絡いただけましたら幸いです。また、国際会議の配布資料は、電子媒体で事前に共有することになっておりますので、配布資料を希望される方も同じアドレスまでご連絡いただければと存じます。

連絡先：佐藤空（東洋大学）: sato036[at]toyo.jp

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

Friday 17 January 2020 Prof. Patrick Wallis on Guilds

Patrick Wallis教授(LSE)の来日に伴い、東京大学経済史研究会と共催で、1月17日(金)にセミナーを開催いたします。
それ以外にも東京大学にて一連のイベントが開催されます。

2020年1月12日(日)：若手・中堅のための英語論文ワークショップ
2020年1月16日(木)：「論文を国際ジャーナルに載せるには」

17 January 2020 (Friday), 6:30pm-8:30pm
Seminar Room 3, Floor 2, Kojima Hall, University of Tokyo / 東京大学本郷キャンパス小島ホール２階、第3セミナー室

Patrick Wallis (London School of Economics)
“Guild Society: Social capital and Guilds in early modern England”

道順については下記をご参照ください。/ Access
http://www.cirje.e.u-tokyo.ac.jp/about/access/campusmapj.pdf

会終了後は、会場にてワインとともに歓談をした後、発表者と有志で懇親会を行います。
奮ってご参加ください。 Free refreshments provided afterwards. All are welcome.

発表者からアブストラクトを頂きましたので、ここに共有いたします。

Abstract:

November – Prof. Christine MacLeod

21 Nov. 2019 (Thurs.), 6:30pm-
Seminar Room 3, Floor 2, Kojima Hall, University of Tokyo / 東京大学本郷キャンパス小島ホール２階、第3セミナー室
Christine MacLeod (University of Bristol / University of Tokyo)
‘The Industrial Revolution, triumph or tragedy?  A critical historiography for the twenty-first century’

道順については下記をご参照ください。/ Access
http://www.cirje.e.u-tokyo.ac.jp/about/access/campusmapj.pdf
会終了後は、会場にてワインとともに歓談をした後、発表者と有志で懇親会を行います。
奮ってご参加ください。 Free refreshments provided afterwards. All are welcome.

発表者からアブストラクトを頂きましたので、ここに共有いたします。

ABSTRACT:

20 September: Colloquium on Early Modern European History

We will host the following special colloquium with two historians visiting Tokyo. This colloquium is followed by a half-day symposium on the following day on “Origins of Market Analysis from Global Perspectives”

 

Colloquium on Early Modern European History with Professors Jacob Soll (USC) and Giacomo Todeschini (Trieste)

Time: 15:30 – 18:00 Friday 20 September 2019

Venue: Seminar Room 3, Floor 2, Kojima Hall, University of Tokyo (Hongo Campus)

Map [Eng]: http://www.cirje.e.u-tokyo.ac.jp/about/access/campusmap.pdf 

         [Jp]: http://www.cirje.e.u-tokyo.ac.jp/about/access/campusmapj.pdf

Main Language: English 

 

1) Hannah Lee, University of Tokyo

‘The Contested Idea of “Consent” in the Late Elizabethan Religious Sphere’

 

2) Sho Makino, University of Tokyo / Trinity College Dublin
‘Ethnic and Religious Representations in the 1641 Irish Rebellion’

3) Genji Yasuhira, Musashi University / Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science

‘Transforming the Urban Space: Spatial Practices and Catholic Survival in Post-Reformation Utrecht’

Commentators: Professors Jacob Soll (USC) and Giacomo Todeschini (Trieste)

Co-hosted by Historians’ Workshop